Obstruction of justice

Washington Post reported Wednesday. Mueller is taking up an obstruction of justice probe of Trump that began at the FBI soon after Comey was fired on May 9, anonymous sources told the Post.In congressional testimony last week, Comey said Trump had told him he hoped the FBI could let go of the investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Comey said he understood the president to be requesting that the FBI drop any investigation into alleged false statements Flynn made about his conversations with Russians.According to the Post’s sources, Trump spoke to Coats and Rogers about the Russia investigation the next month. In a March 22 meeting, Trump reportedly asked whether Coats could ask Comey to back off the FBI’s focus on Flynn. Coats has said he didn’t feel pressured to do so, however.A day or two later, Trump reportedly asked Coats and Rogers to publicly state there was no evidence of coordination between his campaign and the Russian … [Read more...] about Mueller considering possible obstruction of justice case against Trump, report says

Failing to comply with premerger document disclosure rules can lead to civil and criminal penalties for companies and their executives.On May 3, 2012, Kyoungwon Pyo, a senior executive at Hyosung Corporation, agreed to plead guilty and serve five months in prison for obstruction of justice for altering documents submitted to antitrust regulators in connection with a Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act premerger notification filing. Pyo altered, and directed subordinates to alter, numerous pre-existing corporate documents and documents prepared to analyze the acquisition—known as Item 4 documents—before they were submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In this case, following the completion of the normal drafting process, Pyo allegedly altered existing documents by changing data such as the market share attributed to different industry competitors. According to DOJ, the alterations misrepresented and … [Read more...] about Recent DOJ Obstruction of Justice Case Highlights Importance of HSR Item 4 Compliance

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has reached out to the Justice Department’s deputy solicitor general Michael Dreeben, in an effort to understand some of the complex issues of law that have come up so far in the Russia investigation–including what “obstruction of justice” might look like under the circumstances.Said to be the Justice Department’s top criminal law attorney, and admired on both sides of the aisle for his encyclopedic knowledge of the subject, Dreeben is the point person for such questions and a natural choice for the job.Walter Dellinger, a law professor at Duke, said: “Michael [Dreeben] is the most brilliant and most knowledgeable federal criminal lawyer in America — period.”By tapping Dreeben for the part-time position–he’ll continue to work on some of his present cases at the Department of Justice with the help of other attorneys–Mueller has shown he’s serious about the investigation into alleged … [Read more...] about Mueller Taps Criminal Law Expert For Clarity On Obstruction Of Justice

A fired U.S. Attorney says there is enough evidence to investigate obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump.Said Preet Bharara on Sunday’s episode of This Week: I think there is absolutely evidence to begin a case. I think it is very important for all sorts of armchair speculators in the law to be clear that no one knows right now whether there is a provable case of obstruction. It’s also true, I think from based on what I see as a third-party and out of government, that there’s no basis to say there’s no obstruction. And this point on whether or not the president has legal authority to fire or to direct an investigation, I don’t really get it. It is a little silly to me.Bharara said that mere authority to do something doesn’t immunize the President if that action was taken for an illegal reason.He also said he didn’t know why he was pushed out as U.S. Attorney in March.This comes after … [Read more...] about Preet Bharara: ‘There’s Absolutely Evidence’ to Investigate Obstruction of Justice by Trump

probed for obstruction of justice by newly appointed special counsel Robert Mueller. Many legal experts have weighed in on how hard an obstruction case would be against the President based on what we know so far. Those coming to Trump’s defense claim that his alleged comments to Comey about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn don’t reach the standard required for an obstruction charge. Trump allegedly said in reference to the investigation of Flynn, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”Trump’s backers believe that the expression of mere hopes is not the same as obstructing justice, but there are arguments showing that “I hope” could be enough. Law professor Dan Epps from Washington University in St. Louis put it plainly:In response to that tweet, New York Times Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak cited the case United States … [Read more...] about Yes, President Trump, ‘I Hope’ Can Be Basis for Obstruction of Justice Charge

Vice President Mike Pence could be implicated in certain crimes related to the circumstances surrounding the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, according to legal experts focused on the case.One of those crimes may be obstruction of justice.Professor Jed Shugerman, who teaches at Fordham Law School, took to Twitter over the weekend after news broke that Pence received a copy of the original draft letter outlining President Donald Trump’s reasons for firing Comey.According to the New York Times‘ reporting, that letter was drafted by senior adviser Stephen Miller, contained thoughts from the president, ran multiple pages long and read like a “screed.” Its submission was argued against by White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II who criticized its tone.McGahn won out and the original letter was not given to Comey. A copy was given to deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, who then wrote the letter outlining the official justification for … [Read more...] about Legal Experts: Pence May Now Be Implicated in Obstruction of Justice

Donald Trump is being investigated by the FBI for obstruction of justice. Trump pretty much confirmed the probe during a weekend tweet, despite his new attorney going on the cable news circuit to deny that his boss was under investigation.Legal scholars have debated whether, based on his interaction with former FBI Director James Comey, Trump violated federal law with the intent to “corruptly influence” an investigation. Pundits have pontificated about whether Trump’s lawyer would even know if the FBI was investigating, and whether he should cooperate. However, what’s been pretty much ignored during this entire mess is that even if federal investigators find evidence that Trump committed obstruction of justice, the Department of Justice likely can’t do anything about it. That’s because almost all legal scholars agree that sitting U.S. presidents are immune from indictment for the duration of their presidency. … [Read more...] about Why President Trump Won’t Be Indicted For Obstruction of Justice

Wednesday brought a new CNN report that claims fired FBI Director James Comey will testify publicly before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Not only that, but he is expected to say President Donald Trump pressured him to end the feds’ investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. If this report pans out, then a question gets raised: Could Trump do this? If the allegation gets proven, would this be legal?A New York Times report from May 16 claimed that Trump asked Comey to end the investigation into Flynn.“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” the president allegedly said. (The White House denied that report.)For months, the President’s critics have thrown around the term “obstruction of justice,” especially when discussing the possibility of impeachment. Professor Jonathan Turley, of George Washington University Law School, says that … [Read more...] about If Comey Testifies Trump ‘Pressured’ Him to End Russia Investigation, Legally, Is That Obstruction of Justice?

Earlier this week, Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse accused White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders of obstruction of justice. This post explains why the Democrat’s charges are laughable.Whitehouse claimed that Sanders’ recent comments disparaging former FBI Director James Comey were more or less akin to witness tampering. He even cited a statute to bolster his sensational claim.The Hashtag Resistance immediately seized upon Whitehouse’s claim in an attempt to score some cheap points and gin up outrage, but, predictably, Eric Boehlert, didn’t focus on the statute in question in a post at the Hillary Clinton dead-enders site, ShareBlue. So, let’s take a look at the law cited by Whitehouse and see if we can make any legal sense out of his accusations. (Spoilers: we can’t.)Whitehouse said: There’s a statute, 1504 in the obstruction of justice statutes, that talks about attempts to influence grand jurors. So the … [Read more...] about Why Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Remarks About Comey Are Nowhere Near Obstruction Of Justice

President Donald Trump has been accused of obstructing justice by a former White House ethics attorney. There are multiple arguments for that charge undergirded by multiple statutes. In the interest of brevity, we’ll explore just one here.Norman Eisen served as chief ethics lawyer for the Obama administration. Today he outlined the possibility of an obstruction charge in an op-ed discussing the president’s tweet-storm in response to the guilty plea by former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos.It’s not worth re-hashing the entirety of the Papadopoulos story here, but suffice to say, what the public knows is: Papadopoulos lied to the FBI on numerous occasions regarding the Trump campaign’s Russian contacts, got caught lying about his involvement with those contacts, and has now reached a plea agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller.Trump’s response to this news came via Twitter, natch. He wrote: The Fake News is working overtime. … [Read more...] about Fmr White House Lawyer: Trump Tweet Against Papadopoulos May Be Obstruction of Justice